FFVC Releases WTO Protest Video

By Kyle Yamada

Seattle. How quickly the word has become the rallying cry for the gamut
of progressive causes from labor rights to environmental protection. When 50,000 protesters
crowded the streets of Seattle on November 30, 1999 to denounce the World Trade Organization
(WTO) ministerials, Flying Focus was there. Armed only with a sign reading "Wage Trampling
Oligarchy" and my dad's Hi8 camcorder, I set out to conduct numerous interviews with protesters
in the streets and record the day's events.

The result was a pair of stinging eyes and our most popular program to
date. In addition to the regular PCA broadcast, the half-hour Protest in Seattle: Resisting the
WTO (VB #34.4) has reached viewers in the windy city via broadcast on Chicago Cable
Access and engaged audiences in Eugene through a special screening at the University of Oregon.
The program has won recognition at the Mid Oregon Production Arts Network's 2000 short film
screening and has been requested by libraries at Reed College, Linfield College and Willamette
University, to name a few. (Multnomah County Libraries alone ordered nine copies!).

So enough bragging-what's this show all about? Protest in
Seattle documents two key days (Nov. 30 and Dec. 2) of the tumultuous week-long
demonstrations. The program weaves highlights from the organized labor march, Food and
Agriculture Day and the sit-in at King County Jail together with numerous interviews, instances of
police aggression and a foray into the constitutionally dubious "no-protest" zone. In short, it gives
a quick, cogent overview of the major events and issues at stake in Seattle.

Most significantly, I took special pains to represent the diversity of
opinion among the activists in Seattle. Although the importance of solidarity became amply clear in
the face of police provocation, it was no reason to paint the demonstrators as one monolithic force
bent on a single objective. By giving individuals the chance to speak for themselves, Protest in
Seattle offers a perspective on the demonstrations that was largely absent from the mainstream
media.

Sister Helen Prejean on the Death Penalty

"The mandate and the mission is formed
when we have witnessed something that we know is an injustice..."

--Sister Helen Prejean

Sister Helen Prejean has worked for social justice and the elimination of
the death penalty in the United States for nearly twenty years. In a February 2000 lecture in
Portland, Sister Prejean shared her experiences working in the St. Thomas Housing Project in
New Orleans, witnessing the poverty, lack of education, drugs, police brutality and
institutionalized racism that affect so many of the people who end up on Death Row. In 1982 she
visited death row inmates at Louisiana State Penitentiary. Her experiences led to the writing of
Dead Man Walking, the book that is the basis of the Academy Award-winning film.

In Helen Prejean on the Death Penalty (VB #34.13 & 35.1)
she exposes the class and race-based inequalities of our justice system that reserves its
harshest penalties for the most disadvantaged members of our society. She points out the startling
inadequacy of legal representation, and how racism and poverty have resulted in innocent people
being sent to Death Row. She tells of the anguish and isolation of victims' families, and argues that
we must do more to support victims of violence, help them heal through the example of
forgiveness, and reject the false closure of State-sanctioned killing. Hers is a powerful message of
choosing redemption over vengeance.

Sacred Wombs

For hundreds of years, women and their
bodies have been forcibly controlled by the patriarchal medical system. In Sacred Wombs(VB #34.1), two midwives conducted a workshop at the 1999 End Corporate Dominance
Conference in Portland. They discussed abortion and the lack of options for pregnant women
before Roe vs. Wade, alternatives to hospital births, and other reproductive issues. The
program includes a slide show comparing the treatment of women's bodies to the treatment of the
earth and a short video of a water birth.

1999 End Corporate Dominance Conference

Three other programs were produced in the
past six months from the 1999 End Corporate Dominance Conference. In People Power vs
Corporate Power(VB #35.3), Ronnie Dugger, a keynote speaker and co-chair of the
Alliance for Democracy, gives a broad overview of the devastation caused by corporate
dominance.

In 50+ Years is Way Too Much(VB #35.8), Njoke
Njehu, another keynote speaker and Director of 50 Years is Enough, equates corporationsí
international expansion with colonialism (continued from front page) and describes the
harmful effects it has had on many countries including those in Africa where she grew up.

In Mergers, Monopoly and Anti-Trust (VB #34.10&11),
the editor of a website tracking mega-mergers explains who is working to oppose conglomeration,
and notes that the rate of consolidation has only increased under the present Presidential
administration.

"Diamonds, Guns and Rice"

Flying Focus member Caley Haaken-Heymann
recently co-produced, along with Jan Haaken, a video documentary on the Sierra Leonean Civil
War which aired on Tualatin Valley Community Access in late May. Diamonds, Guns and
Rice: Sierra Leone and the Women's Peace Movement tells the story of the Civil War through
the eyes of refugee women. Caley and Jan were in West Africa last summer where they were able
to interview and videotape women in refugee camps along the border of Sierra Leone. When they
returned, Caley and Jan began work on the video project, consulting with Sierra Leonean refugee
and peace organizations in the process.

Produced through Tualatin Valley Community Access, the 58-minute
video combines interviews, war footage, music, poetry, and scenes portraying the vitality of the
Sierra Leonean people and culture. Testimonials of refugee women capture the dramatic horror of
the Civil War and its devastating impact on women and children. But women are also cast as
actively engaged in analyzing the causes of the war and in mobilizing for peace. In addition to
exploring the role of the global economy in the war that erupted in 1991, Diamonds, Guns and
Rice tells the story of the Sierra Leone Women's Peace Movement, an organization formed in
Freetown in 1996. Throughout the video, women's personal stories are interwoven with analysis
of the war and discussion of the peace process.

An earlier half-hour video addressing the same topic, Witness for
Justice: Sierra Leone(VB #34.6), played on the Flying Focus Video Bus in
January.

Shows Focus on U.S. Policy in Iraq

Three tapes produced recently by Flying
Focus feature information about the situation in Iraq, but each one has a very different focus. In the
first, activist Philip Berrigan, famous for his civil disobedience actions against the Vietnam War,
spoke in Portland in October 1999 about the military bombings of both Iraq and Yugoslavia.
Berrigan outlined the various economic interests of the U.S. in each country, and left his audience
with a message of hope for those who strive to make the world a better place. Watch Philip
Berrigan: Peacemaking in a War-Torn World(VB #33.11) for the in-depth story.

The two other tapes feature seminars from a National Conference on
Iraq Sanctions held in Ann Arbor, Michigan also in October '99. In the first, Getting
Resolutions Passed(VB #34.8), panelists talk about their successful efforts to get
local elected officials to speak out against the 9-year-old sanctions on Iraq. Students, teachers and
activists describe how they got student governments, school boards and city councils from
California and Michigan to support their resolutions. Gain insight into how things work when a
Detroit City Council member explains how she and her colleagues voted on what some believe was
the first resolution of its kind. This show should be of interest to activists working on
any issue, for the tactics described on how to be effective with legislators is pretty much
universal.

And in the third tape, Columbia University Professor Richard
Garfield, who has been to Iraq a number of times, discusses the effects of the "oil-for-food" deal
(Professor Richard Garfield: The Oil-for-Food Program [VB #35.6]). The program was
designed to prevent the deterioration of the situation in Iraq--which by 1996, when the program
was instituted, had been under the world's most comprehensive embargo for 6 years. As a result,
Prof. Garfield notes a tremendous rise in infant mortality and diseases that were otherwise
controllable in pre-war Iraq.

Portland Cable Access Channels Move!

For 9 years, the Flying Focus Video Bus
has more or less run in the same time slots on the same channels. Due to AT&T's (no
comment) decision to align all the cable channels for the region, these are the new channels, same
old time.

Mondays, 8pm, Channel 22 AT&T PDX (was Ch. 27)

Wednesdays, 11pm, Channel 23 AT&T PDX (was Ch. 33)

Fridays, 9:30pm, Channel 11 Citywide (Cable Access Network).

We understand our programs may reach more homes. It is also possible
that in the near future PCA will "webcast" programs, so
those with access to computers that can "stream" video will be able to watch the Video Bus in real
time on line.

Please Support Flying Focus

Many of our ongoing supporters recently
received a fund-raising letter outlining reasons to donate to Flying Focus. We work hard to present
the under-represented, involve and train volunteers, and be out in the community with camcorders.
Your support is as important as this work. Remember that we're all volunteers and our annual
budget is really small for a group producing video.

While two granting organizations have declined to fund a computer-
based digital editing system for our group, we still hope our supporters can help move us forward
in raising $2500 to $7500 to help us go digital and be independent of Cable Access. PCA has
begun its transition to digital tapes and editing, so we will need all new tape. If you can't make a
monetary donation, think about tapes or equipment, or let us know what you'd like to do as a
volunteer. We can send you a volunteer questionnaire -- write us back or give us a call. Thanks for your
support.